Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life

Might the worrisome symptoms of anxiety have a useful function? Our ancestors needed to worry about lions, tigers, bears, and the headhunters over the next hill. But is anxiety still useful in the modern world? There are some scientific findings on this question.

Online dating is the new singles bar, one in which your words won't be drowned out by the music. But which words should you use? There is some scientific evidence about relatively more effective ways to turn an online contact into a real huggable moment.

Can observing testosterone crazed skateboarders, or delving into the risky decisions made by Joe Kennedy's descendants who died tragic early deaths, inform us about the fundamental bases of our everyday decisions?

Psychopaths, narcissists, and sadists, oh my! Personality psychologist Del Paulhus has bucked the positive psychology trend, with a series of rigorous studies delving into the "Dark Side" of human personality. He has shown that four dark traits have distinct but often unexpected consequences in the workplace and in relationships.

Can one find wisdom on a burrito bag? My wife discovered a long quote from psychologist Steven Pinker on her Chipotle’s lunch sack. Right there, wrapped around a bowl full of carnitas and guacamole, Pinker offered a two-minute summary of scientific data addressing the question: Is the world becoming a better or worse place to live?

If you were on your deathbed and had to offer a single bit of wisdom to your child, what would it be? I asked several sage psychologists, book authors, and old friends to share 2 or 3 kernels of wisdom I could pass on to my son. Maybe you can guess what one bit of advice came up most frequently. Though it sounds simple, it can be surprisingly difficult to follow.

If there were a few kernels of wisdom you think a parent should pass on to his kid, what would they be? Here is my original list of ten gems of wisdom for my young son, but I think they apply to you and me, as well. Let me know if I've missed something.

If there were 2 or 3 kernels of wisdom you think a parent should pass on to his kid, what would they be? I would actually like to hear from you, and from some sage older person you regard as having lived a fulfilling life.

Should abortion be freely available? Should millionaires and billionaires pay higher taxes? My answers to those questions, like yours, are driven by higher principles. Or are they? Here's a look at a brilliant and thought-provoking new book by Jason Weeden and Robert Kurzban.

Maybe you don’t think of statistics as sexy. But Christian Rudder's new book "Dataclysm" might very well change your mind about that. He has mined the data from the clicks and messages of millions of online daters to reveal some surprising patterns of human choice, and he argues convincingly that Big Data can tell us things that traditional scientific methods can not.

A 9-year-old girl accidentally shot a man with an Uzi, leading to media discussions of the gun culture in Arizona and other U.S. states. Here are some statistics comparing gun ownership, homicide and suicide rates, and each states’ gun-friendliness as judged by "Guns & Ammo" magazine. Warning: the numbers might not all fit your expectations.

Some movies take you to fantastic places you’ll never take yourself, where heroic figures tackle problems you'll never encounter. But some of the most masterful movies ever made, like Richard Linklater's "Boyhood," take you to a place that feels just exactly like your real life, and raise deep questions about things you ponder every day.

Did you catch that guy’s smile? Probably. We are able to accurately recognize a smile in about 50 milliseconds (that’s a fleeting 1/20 of a second). Not only that, we can recognize a happy expression on someone who is standing half a football field away. A new paper explores research on the extraordinary vividness of happiness.

Ah, love! Is the feeling of love all blissful for you, or is it more complicated? Some research suggests that the dialecticism emphasized by East Asians may inspire a different experience of love, one that incorporates more negative feelings alongside blissful harmonious affection.

Facebook’s meteoric rise in popularity suggests that it offers us something we’ve always wanted. But like all benefits in life, Facebook comes with its psychological costs—many of them invisible. We review research suggesting 7 ways that Facebook may be hurting you. (coauthored by Jessica E. Bodford)

You say you want a revolution? Political scientists have long assumed some amount of violence is a necessary evil if political reform is ever going to happen. But at a conference on the Origins of Violence, Erica Chenoweth presented some startling data on the relative effectiveness of nonviolent versus violent revolutions

Having a partner with an anxious or avoidant attachment style can make for an unhappy and unstable relationship. But a recent article in Current Directions in Psychological Science suggests that there may be hope, if you match your style of social support to your partner’s attachment style. And frequent sex might also help.

When you use your iPhone to record those precious moments, are you actually erasing them from your own memory? A new study examines the potential down side of the point-and-shoot phenomenon (coauthored by Jessica E. Bodford).

Sophie or Valentina? Liam or Zoroaster? There’s an immense amount of obsessing that goes into choosing a child’s name. One big issue is whether to stick junior with a popular or unique name. Cultural psychologists have discovered that your choice reflects whether you hail from a frontier state or a more settled area.

On one view, having a number of partners is good, making it easier to settle down into a long-term committed relationship without feeling that you’ve missed something. On another view, more partners is a bad thing, and it’s easier to settle down if you have taken a more restrained approach to sex. Which view do you think a recent study supported?

Yesterday morning I posted a blog discussing my newfound love of France. Just a few hours later, I was robbed on the street by a %#€£¥ Frenchman! The experience raises interesting psychological questions—about stereotypes, about the relative pain of some events over others, and about coping.

Q: What’s the difference between a social constructivist and a mafia don? David Buss is a larger than life character, who has championed the integration of evolutionary biology and psychology. Besides being deeply thoughtful and influential, he is also funny.

In an ideal democracy, voters would focus on a candidate's political platform. Yet, voters are often influenced by shallow characteristics, such as physical attractiveness. A series of studies just published in Psych Science suggests that the influence of good-looks on voter preferences ebbs and flows with something unexpected—concerns about disease!

Several of my friends and colleagues do not even know what a Reddit IamA is! Imagine that? They are probably still listening to Elvis Presley’s early recordings with the Jordanaires. Even E.O. Wilson, Steven Pinker, and Robin Williams are with it, man. If you're like them (and me, till a few days ago), here's the scoop...

Tea Party hero Ted Cruz advocates Free Market Economics – the view of human nature that brought us to the current round in the national Ultimatum Game. But the model is ultimately flawed, and if live your life by it you’ll lose a lot of social capital. Here’s why.

People have no trouble believing their pet dogs are human (most even think that Fido will go to heaven!) Yet the same people balk at the reverse suggestion: that humans are animals! My Australian cattle dog Sammy discusses the problem here.

Rob Kurzban just announced an interview with a "colorful personality" in psychology, who talks about the biological significance of older men seeking younger women, the psychology of rejection, and the history of evolutionary social psychology.

About Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life

What do sex and murder have to do with the meaning of life? Oscar Wilde said "We are all in the gutter but some of us are looking at the stars.” But to see the stars -- to understand where human beings fit into the universe -- you have to be willing to look in the gutter -- to explore the simple selfish biases that link us with baboons, hyenas, chimpanzees, and naked mole rats. Ironically, studying those simple selfish biases helps us understand our generosity, creativity, and the emergence of human society.